Beaching it in Northern Chile

After arriving in Iquique, which is a beach town on the northern coast of Chile, at the ungodly hour of 5.30am I hopped in a taxi and headed straight to Backpacker's Hostel.

After partially checking in I was able to leave my bag in the left luggage and endeavoured to find a quiet corner in the lounge to get some sleep. About 20 minutes of light cat napping later, I was joined by an English couple, Mitch and Clare and a Frenchman named Thomas.

Once the sun had finally risen, it was a gorgeous sunny day. Not wanting to waste it catching up on sleep I joined Mitch, Clare, Thomas and a Dutch guy called Jimmy on a trip to the ghost town of Humberstone, which was one of my main reasons for coming to Iquique, well that and the beach of course. 

We caught a micro from the town centre for 2,000 pesos each and were dropped off by the side of the highway. The village was a short 10 minute walk away and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it is now a museum as I expected it to be like Pampa Union, the town I saw on the way to San Pedro de Atacama.

Humberstone used to be a thriving sodium nitrate mining town. In 1929 synthetic ammonia was developed by the Germans and this marked the start of the decline for the town. Operations in the town finally ceased in 1960. Entry to the museum cost 3,000 pesos.

The first part of the town is where all the dwellings were, along with the hospital. It is possible to wander around some of the buildings and a few felt quite eerie. As the town grew in population so did the amenties available to residents and there was a theatre, basketball stadium, school, hotel, pub and even a swimming pool! I couldn't get over how well preserved everything was.

On the other side of the town was the main industrial area where all the mining took place. In contrast to the town this area was very rusty as all the buildings are made from corrugated iron. We were also surprised to see that a lot of the machinery remained in tact and hadn't been looted.

We spent a good three hours just wandering around before catching a micro back to the town.

The Backpacker's Hostel isn't located in the centre of town, rather it is set just metres from the beach and of course a visit to Iquique wouldn't be complete without at least some beach time. I spent a pleasant afternoon catching some rays and going for a dip - the water was very pleasant.

The town centre is a good 15 minute walk from the hostel and Calle Baquedano is the main thoroughfare. It remimded me of something from the Wild West with wooden boardwalks and buildings. It was really pleasant and the end of the road opens out into a square with a rarher elaborate fountain.

The only thing seemingly lacking in Iquique at this time of year (well it is autumn after all) is much of a mid-week night life. However, we did find a bar offering cheap(ish) mojitos along Baquedano. We were the only people in there along with a load of Chilean bikers so it was quite entertaining especially when they all rode off into the night.

I could have very easily spent more time in Iquique relaxing on the becah and staying in the hostel, which had a really great atmosphere. However, I had to push on further north to Arica.

Buses to Arica leave fairly regularly from Iquique with several departures a day. I managed to get a ticket for 6,000 pesos with Pullman Carmelito. I opted to do the 40 minute walk the to the bus station, which in hindsight was a bit ambitious in the heat, with a slight hangover and all my stuff. Needless to say by the time I got there I was very hot and bothered and to top it off the bus was 20 minutes late.

The five hour journey was fine despite the steward taking my passport for a large portion of the journey as he said it would make it easier when we reached the checkpoints on the way. This made me quite twitchy, mostly because I was worried I might forget to get it from him in the commotion getting off the bus and getting my stuff. Thankfully he banded it back before we reached Arica.

I arranged to stay at Arica Unite, which is situated a 20 minute walk from town but is only 10 minutes from the bus station. Arica is in the far north of Chile and is close to the border with Peru so as you can imagine it is a main interchange point for people heading that way or coming back.

It is also possible to get to La Paz from Arica and this is the journey I planned on making. 

I had one full day in Arica and decided to check out the Museo Arqueologico. To get there I took a colectivo amarillo, which is a taxi with a set route and can take more than one passenger at a time, heading to Azapa. The colectivos depart from Calle Chacabuco. The driver dropped me off outside the museum and explained where I would be able to get a colectivo back to town. The journey cost me 1,000 pesos.

Entry to the museum was 2,000 pesos and upon arrival I was handed a large sheaf of papers, which was the English translation of all the exhibits. The museum has exhibits on the various civilisations that lived in the region and it also houses some mummies from the Chinchorro culture (6,000 - 2,000 BC).

The museum was good but didn't really tell me much I didn't already know from the museum in Salta. The mummies were interesting and very different to the ones in Salta due to a different process used when preserving the bodies.

Catching a colectivo back to Arica was fairly easy and I wasn't waiting long before one appeared. I got dropped off at Calle Chacabuco and wandered to the centre where you can see El Morro, which is one of the main focal points in the town. If I had planned my time better I could have walked to the top as the views would probably be quite spectacular.

Needless to say I'm glad I made the journey back to Chile to visit these two places.